Save the world and show what you're capable of in this sports-inspired Run&Gun. Use your explosive shots and powerfully deflect enemy projectiles. Even when your inner weaknesses resurface, you're the only one who can make it through.
Genre: Run&Gun, Action
Engine: Unity
Studio: Tiecorp Studio
Duration: 5 weeks
Period: march - april 2026
Context
In April 2026, I completed a 5 weeks internship as a Level Designer at Tiecorp Studio, a small indi game studio based in France, who currently working on its first project, Tiebreakers.
Tiebreakers is a Shonen Run&Gun, inspired by Metal Slug and Contra, with a strong sports aesthetic and non-stop action. The game challenges players to push their limits by completing levels and defeating bosses.
My roles
My main role was Level Design. I was responsible for creating the V1 of the game's 4th level, going through research, concept development, paper design, iterations, 2D blockout, and combat design.
My second role was Combat Designer, where I designed and documented the different types of enemies, weapons, and power-ups featured in my level.
Screenshots
My Roles
Level Design
Level Timeline
After receiving the level intentions and specifications from the Game Director, including the order in which different locations and narrative events should appear, I created the Level Timeline. This provided an overview of the entire level, allowing me to review the sequence of events, maintain good pacing, and identify any missing elements.
I mapped out the introduction and appearances of new features, such as enemies and weapons.
For each gameplay section I added references and inspirations to align my vision with the rest of the team, and I created a small scheme to illustrate the intended layout.
Paper Design
First, I started working on the different gameplay situations for the level.
For each new feature (enemy, weapon, power-up), I created several iterations of gameplay that could be fun to play. The goal was to create varied challenging situations that required different skills.
I then selected the best situations and placed them into the Level Timeline, based on the overall progression and layout.
With the selected situations, I started working on the detailed layout and combat, including enemies and objects placement. There were 2 types of combat situations: scrolling segments and arenas waves.
Iterations:
Design of Situations:
Level Assembly:
Finally, I assembled all situations to build the complete level. This provided a global overview of the level and allowed me to evaluate its pacing, variety, difficulty, and consistency.
Blockout 2D
I then started the 2D blockout of the level in Unity, using the tools provided by the team.
I implemented:
Combat encounters, including arenas and enemy placement.
Weapons and power-ups, based on the type of encounter.
Destructible objects, to make the level feel more dynamic and natural.
Trigger boxes, used to activate arenas and change camera parameters.
Collectibles and secrets, which add score.
Text messages, explaining the intetions of each situation.
Various placeholders, to be replaced later by the Art team.
Based on feedback from the Game Director, I made numerous adjustments, iterations, and balancing to improve the level and bring it to its V1 milestone.
Combat Encounters
There is 2 types of combat encounters: scrolling segments and waves arenas.
Scrolling segments: I had to position the enemies and make the player's path, including small traversal elements. Enemies must be defeated in order to progress. These sections were very dynamic, encouraging the player to run forward.
Arenas waves: I used a tool that allowed me to control enemy spawning, including their positions, spawn timing, quantity, and types. I had to create progressive and varied waves that challenged different player's skills.
I playtested the enemies encounters extensively to continuously tweak and balance them.
Game Design
Each level of the game introduce new content to keep the gameplay varied. For my level, I also designed new features.
I went through several iterations and reviews with my Game Director. My goal was to create features that fit the level's atmosphere while also changing the player's gameplay and behavior, making the level feel distinct from the others. These features also needed to work well together to create even more possible variety.
In total, I designed 3 enemies, 2 weapons, and 1 power-up. While waiting for them to be produced, I used placeholders and tweaked existing game features to test my intended design.
Walkthrough
Studio
